Going snowboarding in Japan? Prepare to be fingerprinted...

[nippontiger 8]

This is gonna work flawlessly isnt it? Well, let me tell you about how the Japanese handled my bike getting stolen the other weekend. I went to the Koban to tell them it had gone, and they came and spent 15 minutes measuring exactly where I told them it was - even though I told them I couldnt remember the exact spot. Then it was to the Koban, to fill out a form...simple yeah? More simple even, than getting your fingerprints and photos done at immigration....we filled out the form, they checked my gaijin card and got me to write my name on the form. The young police man filled out what had happened, etc. Then, oh my god, the foreigner cant write Kanji!! He has to write his address and profession! What shall we do?! Cue much sucking through teeth...I tell them, I can recognise a lot of Kanji, and Id probably be able to read and copy what they wrote. So the guy writes out my address and profession and after establishing that I could read what he'd wrote, he asks me to copy it into the miniscule place on the form. OK Great! Done!....Chotto Matte! You wrote your name, first name then family name, but on your gaijin card its the other way around! Mo ichi do onegaishimasu! So we do it all again, but as Id had a few beers, I started writing my name the wrong way round again, I corrected it, but of course, no good! Mo ichi do.... so we do it again, my Kanji is getting quite neat by now, even inside the box smaller than a postage stamp. So we get it all done, it looks perfect! Great! All that remains is for the policeman to put his stamp on it.... which he does, but horror of horrors! It doesnt quite stamp perfectly! Oh my god! Much sucking of teeth, but the young policeman cant make a decision...checks with the boss.... Mo ichi do! So we do it all again. After 2.5 hours, at 2 am, I can finally go home... on foot in the rain! Many apologies from the policeman - it was probably stolen by a Chinese, he informed me, and Ive been informed the same 3 times since by each different Japanese person Ive told. Of course, it couldnt possibly be a Japanese person that did it!

This fingerprinting and photos malarky will do nothing to prevent terrorism in Japan, no doubt cause long delays and inconvenience visitors to the country, together with many people who have made a long-term commitment to this country and will only serve to re-enforce the aforementioned prejudices that many Japanese continue to hold against foreigners.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

hahaha, yep that sounds about right mate

[Davo 1]

Great post Gary. What a funny story about the bike. This is exactly why I've never bothered going to the cops whenever I've had bikes stolen. Considering the frequency of bike thefts in this country there must be a hell of a lot of Chinese peddling about the place.

 

The cops told us it must have been SE Asians when our apartment got burgled a few years back. My mate was told it was the Chinese when he was burgled. Funny thing is, even the ummmm...completely reliable crime stats show that crime by foreigners is miniscule and statistically lower than that committed by Japanese.

 

The fingerprinting will do very little to prevent any terrorism that may be planned for Japan IMO. I hope that it's all as smooth as anything but I still don't like it and it doesn't make me feel any safer. Any determined terrorist will still be able to come and go with ease, after all this is an island nation and the Nth Koreans have had great success with it.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Tsonda, aren't those countries the ones who agreed to no passport checks and open borders anyway in the EU a few years ago?

 

I'd be surprised that the UK is allowing foreign Police to drive (we are an island after all ) 30kms into the country.

[tsondaboy 0]

Go through the Schengen Treaty article mate and most probably you will have all your questions answered.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_treaty

[farquah 0]

November 20, the day the new biometric system was inaugurated for foreigners at Immigration, has seen continuous troubles at every port of entry with taking prints and equipment failure.

This taken from the Sankei Shinbun.

 

 

"There were errors with reading data for about 30 people at Hakata Port, and after redoing the procedure, only four people were recorded. The Immigration official in charge decided to waive the procedure and everyone in. The official claimed the equipment was not faulty, rather, “It seems there were a lot of elderly people whose fingerprints had been worn down after years on the farm.”

 

At Narita Airport, one Australian man’s fingerprints were unreadable, and the process took more than an hour. According to the Immigration Bureau at at Narita, there are cases where people’s fingertips were too dry to be read. At Shin-Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, there were reports of more failures, the cause seen as dry skin.

 

At Fushiki Toyama Port, Toyama Prefecture, three out of five portable fingerprint readers were inoperative right after the start of usage. After rebooting their systems, only one machine became operable, and it died after 30 minutes. Use was discontinued."

[projectsplat 0]

ouch. that hurts. I hope it gets better in the next 3 weeks.....

[projectsplat 0]

the BBC have a video report on it at their website. it actually shows the process.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7102962.stm

 

doesn't look to shabby, but it does start the report with a shot of a sign showing a 30 minute wait....

[scouser 4]

I didn't see anything about this on the main Japanese news last night. Another "non issue" for Japanese news perhaps?

[indosnm 0]

I saw it on the 10 O'clock news, but just a quick bit.

My wife said she saw it on an earlier news program too, and they showed the groups opposing it, which was good.(and mentioned that there have been no acts of terrorism in Japan by gaijins.. only Japanese)

[Kumapix 0]

yeah it was on all the news shows i saw last night, but none mentioned the groups opposing it

 

glad it was mentioned somewhere Indo

[bushpig 0]

I saw it too on two different news shows.

[soubriquet 0]

 Originally Posted By: BagOfCrisps

soubs is going back to Japan today, right? It will be interesting to hear what he reports.

Came in through Narita this morning. As mentioned elsewhere, Narita is running a 3 tier system for Nationals, foreign residents and visitors.

There were 2 desks open for the foreign residents, and it took them 15 minutes to process the 10 people in front of me. Not very encouraging.

How the machine works is this: You stick your index fingers into a pair of holes, and two specially trained moray eels eat your identity. Then you look into a hole in the machine, and a dementor confiscates your soul, and drains all warmth and emotion from your body. Thus processed you are now equipped to rejoin the Japanese workforce.

[BagOfCrisps 24]

[tripitaka 0]

 Originally Posted By: soubriquet

 Originally Posted By: BagOfCrisps

soubs is going back to Japan today, right? It will be interesting to hear what he reports.

Came in through Narita this morning. As mentioned elsewhere, Narita is running a 3 tier system for Nationals, foreign residents and visitors.

There were 2 desks open for the foreign residents, and it took them 15 minutes to process the 10 people in front of me. Not very encouraging.

How the machine works is this: You stick your index fingers into a pair of holes, and two specially trained moray eels eat your identity. Then you look into a hole in the machine, and a dementor confiscates your soul, and drains all warmth and emotion from your body. Thus processed you are now equipped to rejoin the Japanese workforce.

1.5 minutes per person. Imagine if you get 80-100, you're looking at a 2-hour wait. I understand that Narita is the only place set up for foreign residents. Kansai, Nagoya, etc. are going to be pure hell if you get stuck behind the Chinese tour groups.

[HelperElfMissy 42]

 Originally Posted By: soubriquet

 Originally Posted By: BagOfCrisps

soubs is going back to Japan today, right? It will be interesting to hear what he reports.

Came in through Narita this morning. As mentioned elsewhere, Narita is running a 3 tier system for Nationals, foreign residents and visitors.

There were 2 desks open for the foreign residents, and it took them 15 minutes to process the 10 people in front of me. Not very encouraging.

How the machine works is this: You stick your index fingers into a pair of holes, and two specially trained moray eels eat your identity. Then you look into a hole in the machine, and a dementor confiscates your soul, and drains all warmth and emotion from your body. Thus processed you are now equipped to rejoin the Japanese workforce.

Thanks for the laugh Soubs!!
What a crack up!

Lucky me! I am going through Narita this time, instead of Sapporo Chitose. Yippee!! At least they should have ironed out some kinks by January....

...do they at least have the dementors return your souls on exit?

[bushpig 0]

Nice one soub

 

Surely the other major airports will follow suit and get their systems sorted for residents etc.

[scottr6675 0]

my first thought when i read about this in the niseko news site was that maybe it was in response to the countless aussies who invade every winter and act like butt heads, and no doubt committ petty crimes, or worse when there shouting there way back through the streets of hirafu, or wherever, waking everyone up, and being knobs...maybe the government would like to be able to hold some people to account who would otherwise be able to do whatever they want with no repercusions...???

[soubriquet 0]

Soubriquette is firmly of the opinion that it is aimed at repeat offenders travelling on false papers. The "anti-terrorism" aspect is a convenient but crude piece of window dressing.

[scottr6675 0]

im having seinfeld memories of jimmy talking about himself in the third person, after that last post...: )

[thursday 1]

 Originally Posted By: snowluvva

my first thought when i read about this in the niseko news site was that maybe it was in response to the countless aussies who invade every winter and act like butt heads, and no doubt committ petty crimes, or worse when there shouting there way back through the streets of hirafu, or wherever, waking everyone up, and being knobs...maybe the government would like to be able to hold some people to account who would otherwise be able to do whatever they want with no repercusions...???

yes snowluvva, it's all about you lot. If only you'd all behave...... now, it's too late.

[thursday 1]

soubs, the lady may have a point. I'm totally for the finger printing, hell, they've been photocopying my passport for years (at the hotels).

 

More finger printing, and iris scanning and DNA samples please. It makes the world a safer place. Not Japan, but the world.

[Fattwins 0]

How does it make the world safer? Its a data base and that is it. The CIA new KGB and etc can get around these systems you dont think others cant. Do you think a known person will actually be in a terrorist cell. That is what makes it a cell it is unknown.

 

I cant fight this and wont fight this cause it wont go anywhere. That said it is a fool that thinks this system makes the world safer. This system is a database that will be used in some way other than this purpose.

[soubriquet 0]

I'm a Citizen of the World, thursday. I don't give a rats about race, nationality or being fingerprinted. I do care about respect, karma, and getting through immigration in less than 30 minutes. OK, it's Day 2, but immigration need to lift their game.

[soubriquet 0]

FT: cross post. The system is picking up convicted criminals returning to Japan (the land of milk and honey) on false documents.